this janitor fought the flames

In a Pacific Palisades neighborhood on fire, Jeff Ridgway defended the building he is responsible for using garden hoses. Since then, he has lived with his dog among the rubble.

Romain Fonsegrives / afp

In the middle of the charred ruins of Pacific Palisades, Jeff Ridgway walks his dog Abby, as if nothing had happened. Unlike the tens of thousands of people chased away by the flames, this janitor refused to evacuate.

He has been holed up at home in this upscale neighborhood of Los Angeles for a week now, after defending his building with garden hoses.

“It was a hell of a battle,” the 67-year-old Californian told AFP, pointing to the blackened eucalyptus tree that he prevented from burning, just in front of the building. “But I’m stubborn, I said to myself: ‘I’m not going to let myself be defeated, there’s no way’.”

After almost 35 years here, the caretaker wanted to do his best to save the 18 apartments in this small residence. When the city ran out of water, he took buckets to draw from the pool.

The outskirts of Los Angeles are still ravaged by several fires, which have killed at least 24 people. In Pacific Palisades as in Altadena, the most affected towns, police and military roadblocks prevent most survivors from returning home.

Groceries delivered by police

Ridgway doesn’t want to end up in a hotel room or a shelter. So he camps out in his apartment, despite the spectacle of desolation beneath his windows.

The tenants of his building had food delivered to him, thanks to the help of a kind police officer: bottles of water, clementines, tomatoes… The guard has enough to last “at least two weeks”.

He even received socks and dried chicken for his dog. “She is very happy with her food. And if she’s happy, I’m happy too,” he says, looking at his toy spaniel with tenderness.

Without electricity, he has been wearing the same clothes for days. “I need a shower,” he smiles in his tweed jacket and soot-covered jeans. “And she needs a bath. I’m starting to call her ‘Slut’ because she’s gotten so dirty.”

These rustic conditions are, however, far from discouraging this American, who recalls with nostalgia his camping stays in the Yosemite natural park.

“A true supportive community”

Because far beyond his building, this former bookseller fell in love with Pacific Palisades. For him, this corner of hills overlooking the ocean is not simply a haunt of celebrities, of which Anthony Hopkins and Rita Moreno have been honorary mayors.

“It’s a Shangri-La,” he insists, in reference to the imaginary Tibetan monastery dreamed up by the writer James Hilton, as a paragon of beauty and tranquility. “It’s a real united community, which has a great history.”

The neighborhood is home to the Getty Villa, which has a priceless collection of ancient statues. Design pioneers Charles and Ray Eames also built a studio there on the hillside. With its glass exterior and colorful concrete blocks, the villa remains a symbol of 20th-century modern architecture.

These jewels have so far been spared from the flames. But a stone’s throw from Ridgway’s apartment, the shopping center and its richly decorated facades dating from 1924 are nothing but ruins.

“Our building is probably one of the oldest in the city now,” sighs the concierge, in his 1950s residence.

Little scent of paradise

Every year, he looks forward to the celebrations of July 4, the American national holiday. They attract tens of thousands of people to Pacific Palisades, who come to admire the skydivers released from the sky to land on Sunset Boulevard.

Despite these destructive fires, he remains convinced that this little scent of paradise, which prevented him from fleeing, will allow the neighborhood to recover.

“Even without a house, each of these lots is still worth one or two million dollars,” he recalls. “We still have the mountains, the ocean, and above all blue skies and good air quality. That’s what will bring people back.”